Summer loving

Well as usual I’ve been too busy living life to sit down and write about living life!

Spring flew by and with it I finished up helping teach First Responder and almost immediately got on a plane with my guy and flew to the east coast for a much needed holiday. After a week in and around Halifax, Nova Scotia, and PEI we headed to Boston and spent the rest of our time perusing Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and even made it to New York City. Conveniently we ended up with a red convertible Camaro for the entire three weeks, and came back still liking each other after spending close to a month travelling together. Truthfully, I wouldn’t have wanted to go with anyone else. Even after coming back to a very sad looking bank account, it was agreed that no money is ever wasted on travel and experience.

We covered all the typical things.. seeing the tattoo in Halifax, visiting Lunenberg, Peggy’s Cove (where we had an amazing picnic), Anne of Green Gables in PEI, Boston for July 4th, the Cheers bar, the Newport Mansions (my favourite), Times Square, taking the subway (interesting stories stemmed from that), seeing a Burlesque show, seeing a Broadway show, going to Harvard and Columbia, walking around Manhatten until all hours… finding some amazing food at all hours in NYC.. etc, etc. I even dragged us to a hunter jumper show in Massachusetts..because it wouldn’t be a holiday with me without something horsey.

This trip really affirmed for me that there will be a lot of travel in the next year or so for me. I really noticed throughout how unattached I was to Winnipeg as “home”. I found myself travelling with the person I tend to want to spend most of my time with at home, and able to communicate with my other loved ones quite easily throughout the trip. Today’s technology does have it’s perks. Coming back to Winnipeg was both a comfortable constant and now more then blatantly unchanging. This little expedition kick started my drive for more.

Good thing I’ve already been planning!

The rest of my summer consists of getting myself back into shape. After 3 weeks of brewery tours, beer tasting, and lots of good food… I’m in need of a little self-bootcamp. I’ve gone back to a clean diet, 80% free of white/processed starches and full of fresh vegetables, fruits, and lean protein. I’ve made a goal to only shop at farmer’s markets for the rest of the summer and fall. One thing we have lots of here.

The next week or so I’m busy working medical for the hunter jumper shows in the city… very odd to be not showing, but nice to still be involved. I have just over 100hrs left of interning to do in field and clinic, and plan to be finishing up those internships by September. August will bring the start of the studying process for the CATA exam in November. I came home from our trip and started a new position at a medical supply company doing sales, brace fitting, and promotions. It’s still a very new position, and coming from minimal experience in sales or retail I’m excited to develop some new skills in a relevant setting to my training.

Developing “Katmah Training” has been an ongoing process. I am forever learning promotional techniques and management styles as I try and grow my client base. July-August in Manitoba is hard as everyone is either in full competition mode or away at the lake, but I’ve continued writing for Heels Down and continue to get my name out in other ways. Being a familiar face on the circuit as the medical response I hope will help as well. I’ve also begun offering online consults, training, and video/photo assessments as a way to work with people who are out of town, province or country. This will come in handy I think in the next year or so.

In May I was honoured to receive CATA’s Student Leadership Award, which was a nice way to end my school year. This is an award voted on by my University and recognised by the national athletic therapy association. It was presented at the national conference in Halifax, conveniently three weeks before I was there on holidays.

Amongst studying, working, and mentally preparing for CATA, my to-do list also includes preparing CVs and emails to send to potential Graduate programs. I have two in mind that I’d like to approach, and am leaning towards starting next fall or winter. Seeing as I’m already missing the “back to school” feeling… might as well use that mentality while it lasts!

I think that’s all my news for the moment… maybe I’ll come up with something more interesting to write about soon! Enjoy the heat everyone!